USATF Cross Country National Championships

Marathoners in the mud

It is conventional wisdom that good cross country runners make good marathoners. After the 2007 USATF Cross Country Championships, it seems clear that the inverse is also true: marathoners make good cross country runners. Especially in the mud, and at altitude.

It had been four years since either Deena Kastor (she was Drossin then), or Alan Culpepper had run in the USATF Cross Country Championships. That year, in a similar muddy course, albeit at sea level in Houston, both ran off with the long-course titles. The following year, both placed at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon and both ran well in Athens. If we had been paying attention, someone might have predicted that these two would again stand in the middle of the podium this year. But neither has come back to cross country since, and the playing field had changed some since 2003.

A few weeks before that 2003 race, a whippersnapper 10 years Culpepper’s junior won the NCAA National Cross Country title in Iowa. In the ensuing years, young Dathan Ritzenhein has shown that he can compete not only with the best in the nation, but the world. Another youngster, Jorge Torres, had won the NCAA title a year earlier in 2002, and had been in the top three at USATF nationals every year since. And, emerging from some lean years, thus hungrier than ever (and no one gets as hungry as he does), was Adam Goucher. Goucher placed second in the NCAA cross country championships his freshman year, way back in 1994, running on the same team as then-junior Culpepper, who placed 11th. Goucher went on to win the NCAA cross country title in 1998, won both short and long course in the 2000 USATF cross country, and last year won the U.S. short course and placed sixth at Worlds.

When they toed the line at the Flatirons golf course on the east side of Boulder together — the first year back to a format of one long race for everyone — most eyes were on Ritz and Goucher. They did not disappoint. Ritz broke out to an early lead, Goucher, Torres and Fasil Bizuneh chasing. By one kilometer Culpepper was three seconds back. By the time they reached "Jonsey’s Surprise," a 4-foot-deep gulch with a stream running through it at about the one-mile mark on the 2K loop that outlined an inverted "U" shape, Ritz was pulling away, with Goucher working to keep up, Torres and Bizuneh fading back quickly, and Culpepper biding his time.

A careful observer would have noted, however, that while Ritz, and particularly Goucher, were slipping and struggling in the mud that grew slipperier throughout the day as the temperature rose and hundreds of racers churned the grass, Culpepper seemed to float above it, his efficient marathoner’s stride clicking away as if he were running on asphalt.

An hour earlier, Kastor had looked similarly comfortable, maybe even more so, as she literally ran away from the field in the women’s 8K. Behind her, Flanagan, appearing overdressed for the warm day, tried to keep her in sight, and earned a strong second for her efforts, while Kara Goucher was soon by herself, and stayed that way through the finish.

Kara Goucher had provided an eloquent description of what it is like to race at altitude the day before the race: "It’s hard to judge your effort," she explained. "It’s not an initial ‘Oh, my gosh, this is hard.’ You get into it, and are doing fine, and then it is . . . ‘Oh! My! Gosh!’" That was certainly the case with me, running in the masters race to get a firsthand feel for the course. A pace that felt appropriate, even prudent, was suddenly unsustainable, and the usual amount of backing off didn’t help much: there just wasn’t enough oxygen to recover.

Culpepper knew this, later citing his experience in the Bolder Boulder as helpful in setting his pace. Ritz, who lives and trains right there, should have known it too, but thought he could outlast his rivals. Afterwards, he would say, "It would have been a good strategy if they would have gone with me. I expected them to go with me. As it was, I ran stupid." Stupid or not, Culpepper was the man of the day, his steady pace taking him past both Goucher, then Ritz on the fifth lap as they slowed (Culpepper ran the 10th kilometer in 3:08, slower than his 3:06 average, but took the lead as Goucher ran the K in 3:13 and Ritz fell to 3:22). This was Culpepper’s third USA cross country title, Kastor’s ninth. Kastor had said the day before, "Cross country is all about heart and soul, about digging down deep." On this day, it was also about the wisdom and experience of age.

Age didn’t seem to matter much to 15-year-old Jordan Hasay, who dispatched the junior women’s field with Kastor-like aplomb. Fellow Californian and Foot Locker champ A.J. Acosta showed up, but dropped out at halfway in the midst of a large pack which stayed up front until just before the final lap when Winona, MN, senior Elliott Heath pulled away to gain a nine-second victory. Heath placed third at his state cross country championships last fall — the talent coming up is deep indeed.

A reported 10,000 people watched the race on a beautiful Colorado winter day. The convoluted loop allowed anyone willing to traverse some snow drifts the chance to see the leaders twice on each loop, ensuring that they never ran in silence. Maybe only Boulder could pull off such a spectacle for cross country, but for one day at least, it felt like the biggest thing in town — make that the country.